


Telling Tells

by cockabeetle



Series: Owari Magica [142]
Category: Owari Magica
Genre: Bad family, Gardening, Gen, Introspection, letters from bella
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-06
Updated: 2020-10-06
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:47:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26853181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cockabeetle/pseuds/cockabeetle
Summary: Sierra spends the day gardening and returns to find a letter.
Series: Owari Magica [142]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1815574





	Telling Tells

It was late by the time she came back into the house. Her hands sore and eyes heavy as she didn’t even bother to flip on the light switch. Her mission of the day had been to tidy up the little garden out back. It had needed her help and she had needed something to keep her busy. It was an even trade. Sure she knew Percy’s dad went out to work on the garden on occasion, but to not see every sweet pea beautiful and blooming was a crime.

That had turned into its own mess of running to the store to pick up some personal tools. She wished she had her own tools that she’d depended on for her own garden, but calling her uncle meant dealing with everything she’d been putting off. She hadn’t gotten around to asking Percy how permanent this arrangement was. No point getting her stuff if she’d just have to store it again.

Apparently one of her aunts found out she had Nanna’s old phone. Luckily she seemed to have kept that information to herself if the lack of other messages or calls was anything to go by. The woman wasn’t one Sierra knew well, even if it had been her father’s older sister. The last and only time Sierra ever remembered meeting the woman was the funeral when she was little. It was a blurry and hazy time of loud noises and lots of people. The world felt like it was spinning and she never felt quite there. Even nowadays the scene behind her eyes played out like she was an observer, watching herself weakly go through the motions. The people were the worst part. Sure they told her they were sorry for her loss and pulled her into suffocating hugs that made her feel sick as they tried to convince her they cared, but they were going to throw her to the wolves later anyways. They didn’t want her, none of them did. They were technically the only family she had left and they were content to throw her away. Some family, they were.

Sierra wiped her eyes, checking the phone absently, and going back to picking out gloves. The woman, her aunt if you count family by blood, had just told Sierra that she would get her uncle to hold on to her stuff for a little while longer. That it was her uncle didn’t mean to cause trouble, he was just stubborn. The woman joked about how stubborn her brother, Sierra’s uncle, could be. Sierra didn’t find it funny. That ‘stubbornness’ meant leaving someone who previously couldn’t even leave the house out of fear to suddenly be alone on the streets. If Sierra hadn’t made her wish, she would have been screwed and very likely better off dead. If Sierra hadn’t met Percy, she would be homeless. So no, her uncle’s stubbornness was not funny to her.

She ripped a pair of gloves off the shelf and threw them into the basket. Urgh... Dragging a hand down her face, Sierra stood there for a moment in the middle of the gardening section, trying to calm down. Getting all worked up over all that wouldn’t do her any good. She left aunt on read a few days ago and it would be best to forget all that and focus on the task at hand. She needed to go pick up a spray bottle for the leaves.

The whole trip ended up taking an hour longer than planned. After winding herself up, she’d wandered to the plants area to calm down and spent a while just enjoying all of the different flowers. Some she’d only see in videos before. It had put her at ease to be among the flowers. If she leaned in close to the pansies and breathed in, she could almost convince herself she was home, working in her garden. Nanna on the porch painting the birds who loved their old fence or maybe she was inside cooking something sweet for dinner. The window opened to let fresh air in. It was like Sierra could hear her calling her inside. Come inside, dinner was ready. That spoiled garden could wait. Everything was good. Things were alright.

Sierra opened her eyes. She was in the planting section of a hardware store. She hadn’t spoken a word to her grandmother in a few weeks. Her flowers were untended and bound to be dying by now. Sierra was alone. The world was quiet. It was time to go check out, she’d had enough of pansies for one day. The walk home was long and full of detours, she hadn’t wanted to bring her foul mood back with her. No one deserved to deal with being snapped at just because she was in a bad mood. By the time she got back to the house, unfortunately she didn’t feel much better. Dealing with anyone by then, even Percy, just felt like too much. So she quietly snuck through the house to get the remaining gardening stuff and ducked out to the backyard. Hours flew by plucking weeds and tending to the flowers. Her fingers ached and grass stained her knees, but when she leaned back feeling proud of her work, gazing upon it in the dim light of the moon, she felt content. She was exhausted, sweaty, and gross, but the garden would be beautiful, and that was enough for her.

She slipped into the quiet house, no different from when she’d snuck out in the first. Absentmindedly, Sierra wondered if anyone had even been home. Grabbing a little baggie of pretzels from the pantry, she made her way to her room. Finishing off a good portion of the pretzels, Sierra rolled up the bag and tossed it on a table. The idea of a shower came to mind and she picked up a clean outfit from around where her backpack should have been. Weird, when did she move it? Oh right, she dragged it into Percy’s room to show him something the other day.

She pressed an ear to the door between Percy’s room and the shared bathroom. Silence. Either he was already asleep or had gone out for the night. That was fine. Sierra was too tired to hangout tonight anyways.

The shower was long and warm. Sierra focused on the feeling of the water running down her form more than any thoughts that wanted to drag her mood back down. Cleaning sweat from her hair and soothing her muscles as she hummed along. By the time, she’d dried off and tossed on her nightgown all that remained was a dull tiredness. Sleep was welcoming her with open arms.

She sat down on the couch only to hear the crinkle of something she didn’t remember leaving there. Blindly reaching, she grabbed it. Grabbing the phone, she turned up the brightness all the way to work as a makeshift flashlight. Holding it over the paper, she realized it was a letter. That was weird, no one she knew would send her a letter, none of her family even knew where she was living and if anyone else wanted to talk to her they could either text her or just go through Percy. Maybe it was for someone else and they just accidentally left it in her room? But who? No one really went in her room, sure Percy snuck in her window from time to time on accident and they hung out some nights, but that didn’t leave much room to accidentally leave some random letter on her bed. The letter also certainly hadn’t been there when she left earlier either. She hummed, flipping it around a few times. No return address, no stamp, or even a name on it, just a red diamond shape, so it was hand delivered. Weird. Even if curiosity killed the cat, satisfaction brought it back. So no matter how tired she felt, Sierra was too curious about the peculiar letter and she opened it. Inside, it had a very simple and short massage.

_ '~There is more than just fear to worry about' _

Well either this was a really lucky guess or someone who knew about her wish was threatening her. Why? She hadn’t done anything. She yawned readjusting the light and looking back to the letter. A red diamond? It looked familiar, but her sleep ailed brain couldn’t quite place it. She hummed. Of course there was more in life to worry about than fear, that was a given. If they were a coward enough to send her letter rather than just say it to her face, was the threat even worth a shit? Oh well, she got up and put it under the pretzels. If Sierra remembered, she would show it to Percy in the morning.If they were a coward enough to not threaten her to her face then they may be coward enough to go after her indirectly. Yeah, best to keep Percy in the loop.

She laid there for a bit, but sleep had left her. There was too much to think about, both her family mess and all of the magi stuff. She wasn’t scared, couldn’t be, but the many thoughts still swirled in her mind relentlessly. Stress. Sierra was stressed. Wasn’t that just fun? She grabbed her ds flopped back down, listening to the familiar ds start up music. Great, looks like this was going to be a long night.


End file.
